The Top 10 Blues-Approved Overdrive/Distortion Pedals

We look at the Top 10 blues-approved overdrive and distortion units around.

6. Ibanez TS-808 Tube Screamer

Thanks to Stevie Ray Vaughan’s use of an Ibanez Tube Screamer (he replaced the TS-808 with a TS-9 and TS-10 later in his career), this pedal has gone on to become the best-selling and most copied overdrive pedal of all time.

The Tube Screamer’s output boost and signature midrange hump, along with a characteristic warmth that the TS-808’s successors lack, make it ideal for playing fat, aggressive solos that destroy everything else in its path.

5. Electro-Harmonix Big Muff π

Most staunch traditionalists think that the raunchy fuzz tones of a Big Muff π are a little too furry and furious for the blues, but that hasn’t stopped a new generation of blues-inspired players from using one. The Big Muff is a key element of 21st century blues as envisioned by Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys and Jack White of the White Stripes, the Raconteurs and the Dead Weather.

4. Dallas-Arbiter Rangemaster Treble Booster

Eric Clapton’s alleged use of a Dallas-Arbiter Rangemaster Treble Booster on John Mayall’s legendary Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton album remains the source of much controversy, but the Rangemaster was also a key element of Rory Gallagher’s late-Sixties rig that similarly redefined blues guitar tone during the British blues revival, thanks to its marvelous midrange and gritty germanium transistor grind.

Numerous clones are available today, including the Analog Man Beano Boost and Keeley Java Boost.

3. Boss BD-2 Blues Driver

Not since the late Seventies, when the Ibanez Tube Screamer and Boss OD-1 made their debut, has a mass-produced overdrive pedal won over the great unwashed and cork-sniffing tone snobs alike. The BD-2 delivers a wide variety of overdrive tones, from creamy to crunchy, with personality that ranges from retro smooth to modern blues-rock raunch.

2. Blackstone Appliances MOSFET Overdrive

This pedal’s nameplate and crinkle finish may have the retro-cool vibe of a Thirties toaster, but underneath the hood lies a modern circuit that uses small-signal MOSFETs and an unconventional input stage to cook up distortion and overdrive with rich harmonic overtones that will melt your face off like a million-watt microwave.

“It’s heavy stuff, not the sound of a popcorn machine,” says Billy Gibbons, who used the Blackstone in tasteful excess on several new ZZ Top tunes.

With a two-year waiting list, the Analog Man King of Tone is one of the most sought-after overdrive pedals, and for a very good reason: it provides a clean boost that preserves a guitar’s tone, making it sound bigger, badder and more bodacious, with just the right amount of natural-sounding distortion.

Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Gary Clark Jr. and Buddy Miller are just a handful of the pros who have discovered that the King of Tone truly rules.

I've been using my rectifier setting on my Cube 30 for gain/distortion. I had an original Dimebag Distortion that actually was two pedals in one but I sold it due to being unemployed. I dig tubes but also dig low/no maintenance. My ears are pretty happy with the BOSS Cube and that's what counts.

I've been using my rectifier setting on my Cube 30 for gain/distortion. I had an original Dimebag Distortion that actually was two pedals in one but I sold it due to being unemployed. I dig tubes but also dig low/no maintenance. My ears are pretty happy with the BOSS Cube and that's what counts.

I own the Blackstone and the King of Tone. Both, just awesome pedals. But I also own one of the very 1st Fulltone OCD overdrive pedals made and it's a crime that this pedal isn't on this list! The newer OCD's don't stand up to the original, 1st series OCD. I play Blues and Blues-based-rock. The OCD is one I keep going back to. I also have a 1968 Vox ToneBender...also very cool, on the music I play...leaving the original OCD out is criminal!!!

I've owned several of these pedals or related models, and I understand you need to have a list and all; but I'd have to say that there are a lot of nice boutique pedals coming out; but rather, than get into a list of newbies, I think the DEMETER FOD-1 should be on here before many of the others. I would add that although, I liked the Blues Driver it seems a bit stale like many of if not all the Boss Pedals even after an expensive modification. I had one of the newer tube screamers and a somewhat mass produced clone; I don't get it other than SRV played one. Not so sure, he used two simultaneously though. I do want a Blackstone Appliances and also one of those new Kazoos; but for now, I'm happy enough with my new Tim Pierce Signature Preamp/OD and some other fairly inexpensive but nice pedals from Vick Audio.

Kind of curious why the writer had to snatch images from the web for this article. Can I assume he never actually used any of these pedals he wrote about? Wouldn't that mean that the entire article was bogus? Nice job GW..

This originally appreared in the print version of the mag. More likely it was tthe web editor who snatched the images from the internet because it was convenient to do so. Do you really think someone who has reviewed gear for various guitar mags for 20 years (including the Klon Centaur for GW back in the October '96 issue - google it - and once reviewed 100 different distortion pedals in a single review for Guitar School) hasn't played a Tube Screamer or Big Muff let alone a Tim or Blackstone?

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I have two problems in my guitar lessons...First one is when I put three fingers together they are wider than the space between the frets which makes it difficult to play even a chord with three fingers and the other is flexibility in my wrist and fingers that makes me uncomfortable to play....Please show me some way to improve this...Thanks!!

I have a Fender Strat six string right hand setup , well i had an devestating hand injury to my left hand with a table saw and lost two fingers ,middle and index at the first joint , they were completely severd .I had them reattached but the two are stiffas apencil at the first jointmiddle joints work finewhat is there to do anything, or go lefty. any advici on what i call ahell of a predicktment. Thanks for any inspiration you can send my way for about online guitar lessons. Thanks